Topic: Microphones seen in The King's Speech (photos added)

[intpseeker]

Anyone have an idea of what the 1920-1930's BBC mics are in the movie The King's Speech. There are a couple of shots of a very large cone or bullet shaped mic, at least a foot long, hung horizontally with the wide end towards the announcer and the cone end away.

Found a photo:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__7s9GUTM-oY/TMNN90u7jZI/AAAAAAAATew/Kr9u1BPdCc0/s1600/kings-speech-guy+pierce.jpg


Later the King delivers a speech into what might be a marconi-type round or hexie mic, hung suspended.

http://www.altfg.com/Stars/photo-actors-c/colin-firth-the-kings-speech-king-george-vi.jpg

[Hypnocracy]

More Background than Technical info...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110128/film_nm/us_britain_film_microphones

Vintage microphones used by the British royal family to deliver speeches to the nation feature in the Oscar-nominated film "The King's Speech," the story about how King George VI overcame his stammer.

Three priceless microphones with gilt, silver and chrome details, bearing the royal coats of arms and other insignia, were dug up from the vaults of British music company EMI and used to record music for the film at Abbey Road Studios.

"It was exciting to know we had the very microphone used by King George VI, the central character of this film, and I thought how appropriate and inspiring it would be to have the microphones present at our recording sessions," Peter Cobbin, senior recording engineer at Abbey Road Studios, said in a statement.

"The royal microphones are works of highly skilled craftsmanship. They are aesthetically pleasing and iconic."

The historical drama features Colin Firth as King George VI, the reluctant monarch, who learns to overcome a crippling stammer after he is forced to take over the British throne following the abdication of his elder brother.

The British film, which centres on his working relationship with his unorthodox Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, has been nominated for 12 Oscars, including best picture, actor, director and original score.

Cobbin had spotted the original microphones at the EMI archives, in Middlesex, outside London, years earlier, and brought them back to life when the score, composed by Alexandre Desplat, was recorded at Abbey Road studios.

Dating back to 1923, they were used by the royal family for speeches on significant occasions.

The film, which also features Helena Bonham Carter as George VI's wife and mother of the current monarch Queen Elizabeth II, had been shot by the time the score was recorded, and the microphones are not seen in the film.

Some Technical info...
http://www.abbeyroad.com/news/story/?newsid=146

These microphones were made by EMI dating back to 1923, and were used by the Royal Family for speeches on significant occasions. It was exciting to know we had the very microphone used by King George VI, the central character of this film, and I thought how appropriate and inspiring it would be to have the microphones present at our recording sessions. The royal microphones are works of highly skilled craftsmanship. They are aesthetically pleasing and iconic, built with unsurpassed gilt, silver and chrome details, bearing royal coats of arms and other individual insignia.


The EMI Archive Trust kindly granted permission for five microphones to be taken to Abbey Road where one of our senior technicians, Lester Smith, was able to restore three of these to good working condition. I adapted a classic recording technique (Decca tree) and took pleasure in making our own ‘royal family tree’ by using microphones built for HM King George V, HM King George V1 and HM Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother).

[intpseeker]

More Background than Technical info...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110128/film_nm/us_britain_film_microphones

Vintage microphones used by the British royal family to deliver speeches to the nation feature in the Oscar-nominated film "The King's Speech," the story about how King George VI overcame his stammer.

Three priceless microphones with gilt, silver and chrome details, bearing the royal coats of arms and other insignia, were dug up from the vaults of British music company EMI and used to record music for the film at Abbey Road Studios.

I had read that and I thought they meant that the music for the flick was recorded using those mics. They had pictures of the EMI ones and they sure were pretty and fancy looking. The ones shown in the movie looked different. They were definitely blue collar mics or maybe common class given they were British.

[Hypnocracy]

Opps...sorry I have not seen the movie...

[intpseeker]

bumb for photos

[intpseeker]

^

[Gutbucket]

That's a missle nose-cone if I ever saw one.



Haven't seen the film yet.

[andromedanwarmachine]

I have.

And whilst the image posted here of the mic Guy Pearce is speaking into is impressive, the film opens with a BBC announcer preparing to speak into something about three times the size!

However the real treat, I think, is the numerous pairs of S.G. Brown (DLR) headphones- slightly earlier than the ones I restored (full story in the Playback Forum) which people wear all the way through.
There is also an amazing scene where Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) persuades the King (Colin Firth) to recite a passage whilst recording him on a "new" disc recorder which cuts a vinyl LP which he's able to take away...

I was wondering what such gear must have cost in those days...!

Did it win an Oscar for sound? There's a wonderful moment where the King's public vocal tics are massively amplified and reverberate back in a stadium. It's worth a look and a listen.I wonder how many people on here are cinema goers...?

JimP

[intpseeker]

Inception won for both sound editing and sound mixing. The Kings Speech was nominated for sound mixing.

The bit at the beginning with the BBC announcer getting ready to announce the Colin Firth character's speech was amazing, as was the size of the mic. Talk about cone envy!

[John Willett]

The real Royal Microphone was nothing like the one in the film - see HERE.

The real thing:



The film:

[andromedanwarmachine]

Thanks for that John- a little film with the actual sound of the original mic included!

I wonder if they had any impedance matching issues! An amazing crossfade- Quite a noticeable warm difference.

Oddly enough- I think replicas of that mic did appear in some scenes. The black & white picture seen momentarily during that short film showed the King sitting in front a desk with a couple of those things and that did replicate a couple of moments in the film... In one instance, a picture is taken for publicity purposes of him sitiing at a desk with those things...- after using another for the broadcast.

Whereas his father uses those deskmount ones distinctly...


JimP